iPhones disabled if Apple detects third party repairs

[church mouse]

So, if I purchase an iPhone have I agreed to only have it repaired at an authorised repairer with authorised parts otherwise Apple have the right to 'brick' the phone?

I can fully accept that I would lose any warranty protection by having an unauthorised repair, but does my iPhone or IOS licence agreement actually say they can unilaterally disable my phone?

Just curious?

[darryl]

Imagine the reaction if Amazon did this!

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

Are Apple Authorized service/repair places common in certain locations? The only place I found when using the finder tool on the Apple website when I told it I needed iPhone repair were the Apple store and my phone services stores (in an area with 3 million+ population for the metro area). Unless something has changed in the past couple of years though neither of those places actually offer device repair.

All Apple stores offer device repair. (Or, to be more specific, they don't actually repair an iPhone, they just give you a replacement and charge a fee that depends on what the problem is.)

This does seem like an unreasonable situation to me. If the o/s detects tampering with the fingerprint scanner, the sensible thing to do would be to fall back to making the user enter the PIN, just as you have to do when you first switch the phone on following a reboot, for example.

[pwalker8]

Originally Posted by HarryT

All Apple stores offer device repair. (Or, to be more specific, they don't actually repair an iPhone, they just give you a replacement and charge a fee that depends on what the problem is.)

This does seem like an unreasonable situation to me. If the o/s detects tampering with the fingerprint scanner, the sensible thing to do would be to fall back to making the user enter the PIN, just as you have to do when you first switch the phone on following a reboot, for example.

While I agree with you, in the corporate world, the security types prefer to render a device unusable if it is being compromised. I would imagine that some manager went with "best practices" rather than common sense.

[forcheville]

Originally Posted by doubleshuffle

Now that Guardian journalist they quote in the BoingBoing article - isn't what happened to him simply the well-deserved punishment for travelling out of easy reach of authorized Apple stores without carrying at least one spare of each of his iDevices? Totally reckless, and now he's whining. Serves him right.

Yes, exactly. Lesser mortals fail to appreciate the ontological force of the insanely great. They should also note that "apple" in latin is not only pomum [apple, fruit], but also malum [evil, disaster, apple, harm, mischief, hurt]

[Jessica Lares]

The lawsuits are coming in now.

Here's a post from a guy who used to be a Mac Genius:
http://eggfreckles.net/notes/error35/

Error 35 is the result of the Secure Enclave, where fingerprint data is kept, failing to pair with the Touch ID sensor, where fingerprint data is captured. A malicious Touch ID sensor could steal an iPhone owner’s fingerprints. It could unlock the iPhone without its owner’s consent. And it could make purchases using Apple Pay without the owner’s permission. Apple Authorized Repair Technicians use a diagnostic test to pair the Secure Enclave with the Touch ID sensor whenever one is replaced. Third-party iPhone repairs do not preserve this pairing. Error 35 is the price Apple’s customers are paying for having unqualified service technicians repair their iPhones.

As for the agreement, here's what it says under termination:
http://images.apple.com/legal/sla/docs/iOS91.pdf

6. Termination. This License is effective until terminated. Your rights under this License will terminate automatically or otherwise cease to be effective without notice from Apple if you fail to comply with any term(s) of this License. Upon the termination of this License, you shall cease all use of the iOS Software. Sections 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 12 and 13 of this License shall survive any such termination.

And there's also this:

(d) You may not, and you agree not to or enable others to, copy (except as expressly permitted by this License), decompile, reverse engineer, disassemble, attempt to derive the source code of, decrypt, modify, or create derivative works of the iOS Software or any services provided by the iOS Software or any part thereof (except as and only to the extent any foregoing restriction is prohibited by applicable law or by licensing terms governing use of open-source components that may be included with the iOS Software).

And this:

7.4 APPLE DOES NOT WARRANT AGAINST INTERFERENCE WITH YOUR ENJOYMENT OF THE iOS SOFTWARE AND SERVICES, THAT THE FUNCTIONS CONTAINED IN, OR SERVICES PERFORMED OR PROVIDED BY, THE iOS SOFTWARE WILL MEET YOUR REQUIREMENTS, THAT THE OPERATION OF THE iOS SOFTWARE AND SERVICES WILL BE UNINTERRUPTED OR ERROR-FREE, THAT ANY SERVICE WILL CONTINUE TO BE MADE AVAILABLE, THAT DEFECTS IN THE iOS SOFTWARE OR SERVICES WILL BE CORRECTED, OR THAT THE iOS SOFTWARE WILL BE COMPATIBLE OR WORK WITH ANY THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE, APPLICATIONS OR THIRD PARTY SERVICES. INSTALLATION OF THIS iOS SOFTWARE MAY AFFECT THE AVAILABILITY AND USABILITY OF THIRD PARTY SOFTWARE, APPLICATIONS OR THIRD PARTY SERVICES, AS WELL AS APPLE PRODUCTS AND SERVICES.

This is from the 9.1 software license. The iPhone hardware license hasn't been updated since 2013.

[Shane R]

Originally Posted by HarryT

This does seem like an unreasonable situation to me. If the o/s detects tampering with the fingerprint scanner, the sensible thing to do would be to fall back to making the user enter the PIN, just as you have to do when you first switch the phone on following a reboot, for example.

You can't render an individuals phone inoperable enough to require replacement. I understand the necessity of the security measures, but they have to stop short of destroying the phones ability to operate.

That's just tone-deaf.

[Jack Torrance]

I could imagine the whining if they let something like this slide and people got their accounts hacked.

Though I'm thinking people that use passwords like "password" or 123456. Deserve it